With the ever increasing interest in tennis, and the vast increase in the number of devotees of the sport; the matter of providing large numbers of court facilities becomes more and more critical. Conventional tennis courts, both private and public are overwhelmed with players, despite some attempts to increase the number of available courts.
The obstacles to providing a sufficiency of the conventional tennis court are immediately apparent when one considers the scarcity of land suitable for such courts in accessible locations; the high price of the land, the cost of preparing the playing surface; and court maintenance costs.
As a partial answer to the problem of providing more tennis courts, it has been suggested that use be made of existing surfaces which may be used as reasonably acceptable tennis playing surfaces, such as parking lots of all kinds, playgrounds, city streets temporarily closed, driveways, aeroplane runways when not in use, and the like.
However, even which such playing surfaces, there must be provided tennis net supporting systems which permit the suitable tensioning of the tennis net as per regulations, as well as portability of the system. While some such systems have been suggested and offered for use and sale; they have been found to present a number of disadvantages, such that their use is extremely limited. Thus, such known systems invariably rely on substantial weights for the anchor portions of the systems in order to maximize the necessary tensioning of the supported net. The construction of such known systems, markedly limits the portability thereof and are of relatively high cost.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide an improved tennis net support system of the portable and knockdown type; which is made up of a number of components which are readily and quickly assembled and disassembled; which is of light weight so as to facilitate transportation thereof; and is of relatively low cost to manufacture and distribute.
Another object of this invention is to provide a system of the character described, where the components are essentially derived from light metal or metal alloys in tubular form to reduce weight while maintaining optimum physical properties.
A further object of this invention is to provide a net supporting system of the character described which includes an elongated stretcher with net anchoring assemblies at the opposite ends thereof, together with footing members disposed at opposite ends of the stretcher and transversely thereof, the interrelation of such components being such that upon tensioning the tennis net while it is connected to the anchoring assemblies, the stretcher tends to move toward the playing surface rather than being lifted away therefrom.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a net supporting system of the character described, where the footing members may be adjustably positioned at desired spacings therebetween, to suit particular playing conditions.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a net supporting system of the character described, wherein the several components of the system are off the shelf items, avoiding parts requiring special fabrication; thereby keeping manufacturing costs at a minimum.
Still a further object of this invention is to provide a net supporting system of the character described wherein assembly or disassembly may be accomplished simply and rapidly with the aid of a few common tools.
Other objects of this invention will in part be obvious and in part hereinafter pointed out.